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For Spanish speakers, far-right news site Tierra Pura opens the floodgates to American misinformation

2022-04-19 Source:mediamatters.org Author:LEO FERNANDEZ

Media Matters identified over 1,100 instances of Spanish right-wing news aggregator Tierra Pura amplifying English-language sources like Breitbart and The Daily Caller

As English-language misinformation networks exploded in recent years with lies related to COVID-19, election integrity, and QAnon, similar outlets have also flourished in Spanish, with content ranging from run-of-the-mill conservatism to outlandish right-wing conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, platforms have struggled and sometimes failed to address misinformation in languages other than English.

One prolific purveyor of far-right Spanish-language misinformation is Tierra Pura, or Pure Land -- a website of articles aggregated from far-right staples like Breitbart and The Daily Caller and conspiracy theory sites like The Gateway Pundit, Great Game India, and National File. After surveying nearly 3,000 posts from Tierra Pura’s Telegram channel, Media Matters discovered over 1,100 instances in which the news aggregator amplified information from the aforementioned far-right news sites and similar fringe sources between July and December 2021.

Based in Argentina, Tierra Pura was created just before the coronavirus lockdowns in late March of 2020, establishing a social media presence on Telegram, Facebook, SafeChat, Rumble, and Instagram. Telegram is its main platform, with over 49,000 subscribers as of publication -- more than three times the number of subscribers it had in January of 2021. Additionally, Tierra Pura’s following on Facebook grew 132% between January 1 and December 31, 2021, with page likes also increasing by 121% during that same period.

As an online news publication, Tierra Pura is unusual in terms of its content production, which relies heavily on English-language articles from right-wing sites that are translated into Spanish and then reposted onto Tierra Pura’s social media platforms. This aggregated method means that Tierra Pura articles may vary widely in tone, but the vast majority of the content we reviewed pushes right-wing talking points, meaning that Tierra Pura’s Spanish-language audience is exposed to varying degrees of misinformation and conspiratorial narratives that are racist, anti-China, and anti-LGBTQ.

However, despite the fact that the site “appeared” in Argentina, there is no evidence linking Tierra Pura to any identifiable individuals or organizations native to that country. This places Tierra Pura alongside sources like RT (which publishes content in Spanish as well) in a troubling subcategory of misinformation that is infiltrative — where a non-native right-wing group disguises itself as an authentic news source to its readership and disseminates misinformation and right-wing talking points from other countries.

According to El Diario, Tierra Pura is affiliated with Chinese religious group Falun Gong, which has been described by the Chinese government as a “cult”. The far-right publication The Epoch Times and the multilingual television broadcaster New Tang Dynasty (NTD) are also associated with Falun Gong, despite denying any direct association. Both outlets used social media platforms like Facebook to amplify false right-wing media claims of voter fraud in the lead-up to the deadly January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

For Spanish speakers, Tierra Pura opens a similar door into the world of right-wing misinformation from America and beyond.

Tierra Pura recycles both English far-right content (translated into Spanish) and far-right material that was originally written in Spanish. While the original English content is mainly sourced from U.S.-based publications, it also includes foreign outlets like Great Game India, RT, and Daily Mail. The Spanish-language material we reviewed comes from far-right and conspiracy theory sites based in Spain and Argentina.

Tierra Pura draws from many right-wing English-language publications, touching on themes including critical race theory, COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and anti-immigration, anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-China narratives. Certain outlets are utilized to hammer specific topics. For example, Great Game India, The True Defender, and Project Veritas are often sourced for COVID-19 conspiracy theories, while sources like Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, and PanAm Post produce heated anti-China narratives.

Spanish-speaking communities are particularly vulnerable to transnational disinformation, because it travels readily on platforms that Latinos often use to communicate with family and friends who live abroad. The disturbing trend of opaque online news fronts with far-right ties spreading content in Spanish seems to reveal an international interest in radicalizing these communities. Even more concerning is that the conspiracy theories pushed by these sites appear to capitalize on intergenerational traumas of repressive political regimes, human trafficking, disenfranchisement, and medical experimentation that still resonate in Latin American communities.

Below are some of the English-language sources Tierra Pura amplified most during our study period. (The number of amplifications is the number of times Tierra Pura either linked to the source directly on Telegram or linked to it within a piece that was posted on Telegram.)

Breitbart

Children's Health Defense

LifeSiteNews

Great Game India

Humans Are Free

Daily Mail

New York Post

Gateway Pundit

The National File

Zero Hedge

Project Veritas

The Daily Caller

The Western Journal

Big League Politics

The Blaze

The National Pulse

The fact that Tierra Pura sources thematically similar right-wing content from publications based around the world doesn’t just indicate an international network of misinformation — it also gestures to the emergence of a common set of beliefs shared by right-wing communities across national and linguistic borders. Because of translation engines like Tierra Pura, these communities can be increasingly brought together.

Methodology

Media Matters collected the nearly 3,000 links posted by Tierra Pura on its Telegram channel over the five-and-a-half-month period between July 20 and December 30 of 2021. We then screened the data for posts that linked to the following 24 English-language right-wing outlets (either directly in the post or within the posted piece): Breitbart, Children’s Health Defense, Life Site News, Great Game India, Fox News, Humans Are Free, Daily Mail, RT, the New York Post, The Gateway Pundit, National File, China Watch Institute, The Epoch Times, Zero Hedge, The Daily Caller, The Western Journal, Newsmax, The Daily Wire, Big League Politics, Project Veritas, The Blaze, RAIR Foundation, and The National Pulse. We included all posts that linked to a direct translation of an article or included an embedded link to an article from one of the 24 domains.

Original Website: https://www.mediamatters.org/epoch-times-and-ntd/spanish-speakers-far-right-news-site-tierra-pura-opens-floodgates-american

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